The practice of stopping people at New England's main airport and
detaining them for questioning based on their behavior is
unconstitutional and must be stopped, the American Civil Liberties
Union said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday. The civil rights group
challenged a program known as "behavioral pattern recognition," which
Massachusetts state troopers have used at Boston's Logan International
Airport since 2002 and which is serving as a model for a similar
program to be launched at airports across the country. The ACLU said
current law allows police to stop people when they have a reasonable
suspicion that they committed, are committing, or are about to commit a
crime. The behavioral profiling program, however, instructs officers to
detain anyone whom they believe is exhibiting "unusual" or "anxious"
behavior, the ACLU said. "This program is another unfortunate example
of the extent to which we are being asked to surrender basic freedoms
in the name of security," John Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU of
Massachusetts, said in a statement. [more] and [more]
The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of King Downing, national
coordinator of the ACLU's Campaign Against Racial Profiling. According
to the lawsuit, Downing was approached by law enforcement officials
after he arrived at Logan more than a year ago to attend a meeting on
racial profiling. A state trooper stopped Downing, a black man with a short beard, and
asked to see identification. When Downing declined to show
identification without first knowing why he was being stopped, he was
told he would have to leave the airport. But when Downing tried to leave, the trooper followed him and again
demanded identification. Downing was then surrounded by three other
troopers and told that he was being placed under arrest for failing to
show identification. Downing finally agreed to show his identification and travel documents,
and was allowed to leave. No charges were filed against him.
